Preston Sturges last film for a Hollywood studio was a deliberate attempt at making a box office hit: Daryl Zanuck gave him technicolour, Betty Grable at her box office peak, and a handsome budget. The resulting film lost money and isn’t particularly well remembered today.
It starts marvellously, with Grable in bright, animated form and very sexy as a saloon singer with a hot temper and quick to shoot her cheating boyfriend (Cesar Romero). She accidentally shoots a judge in the backside and hot tails it to a small town where she and her mate are mistaken for school teachers and she sets her cap at a rich miner (Rudy Vallee). So far so fun – a terrific set up, the action is bright and breezy, and Sturges can’t get enough scenes of Grable changing in and out of clothes.
But then it runs into trouble – Cesar Romero comes back, but instead of having him as a false love interest he’s the real love interest – which is troublesome since you know he and Grable have problems that will never reconcile (the ending makes a gag along these lines but it means the ending has hollow emotion). You keep expecting him to reform a la the Great McGinty but it doesn’t happen. Also there are these two over acting character actors as trouble some brothers, whose supposed death prompts the villain to want to hang Romeo and Vallee – but if he thinks his sons are dead that doesn’t make him that villainous. So it lacks a real hero and villain, and heart (which the best Sturges films all had) – and the fact they impersonate school teachers isn’t really paid off. There’s a sort of funny teaching scene, and a sheriff checks if she’s a fugitive… but that’s about it. So it’s a real shame. Still, lots of racy dialogue and good energy.
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